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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lars Frehse" data-source="post: 257073" data-attributes="member: 1674">Chapter 7- The Struggle for the Serpent Amphora part 1The sky darkened in the east and a storm was building up and moving towards the friends.Ben frowned: “This doesn’t look like a natural thunderstorm, there… Whatever the cause, it is not just bad weather.”“All the more reason for us to hurry up”, Torn said.Niklas nodded: “What do you think? We two could try to sneak to the ratmen on top of the cliff. If we kill them, we should be able to take care of the two patrols. After all, if the Asaathi are still in that camp, I doubt we would have a chance against all of them at once.”.The half orc stood up and fastened his axe to his belt:”Alright then, let’s go.”.Niklas and Torn circled around the cliff, leaving their friends behind. Then, after half an hour, they had reached the top of the cliff. Carefully crawling under the protection of some bushes, they approached the two watchers. They were sitting on some smooth rocks, chatting idly. Torn and Niklas inched themselves carefully closer, and when they were mere feets away from their intended victims, they jumped up and Torn split the skull of the ratman closer to them. The other one jumped up and tried to grab his scimitar, but before he could pull his weapon, the monk and the rogue were already close to him, attacking him with axe and fists and Niklas broke the ratman’s neck with a well placed kick.After hiding the bodies, they examined the campsite, and found nothing but a rope leading down to the main camp and a wineskin that was half full with sour wine. Then, they returned to the camp and told the others of their success.Now, they went into the gully where they hid themselves in order to ambush one of the patrols. By now, single drops of rain where falling from the sky and in the distance, there was thunder. After a short while, one of the patrols indeed walked up to the spot where the friends where hiding.It looked as if they were unaware of the ambush, but Niklas saw one of the ratmen nudging the other one. The humanoid rat slightly pointed his head towards where Jan was hiding and the other one nodded in agreement- some of Jan’s platemail was shining through the leaves of his hiding spot.Now Niklas crawled over to Jan, intending to warn him without giving the entire ambush away. But before he could reach him, both ratmen had raised their crossbows and they fired bolts at the surprised paladin. Jan screamed out in pain- even though one of the bolts was deflected by his dwarven craft armor, the other one punched a hole into the plate protecting his shoulder and entered his flesh there.Everything happened rather fast then. As the thunder roared, the ratmen reloaded their crossbolts, but as they were just shooting their next volley, Jan had raised his crossbow in turn and shot one of the ratmen into his throat. As the hit one sank to the ground, grasping for the bolt while blood was shooting from his neck, the ambushers charged the remaining ratman.Seeing that he was surrounded, he shot his last bolt at Jan, hitting again, and then he pulled his scimitar, facing his opponents. But against the heros’ superiority in numbers, he had no chance and Niklas ran him through with his glaive.As the friends stood over the corpses of their enemies, there was lightning which was shortly afterwards followed by thunder. The air was now rapidly getting colder and the wind was blowing stronger with each passing minute. At the same time, the rain had gotten stronger, too, and the occasional drops of rain had now been replaced by a real downpour.Trepat wiped his wet hair out of his face: “ Let’s get the last patrol. Jan, I am sorry, but I think it would be best if you would stay behind. You are just too loud and shiny for ambushes…”.Jan nodded in agreement and while he was taking care of his wounds, the others sneaked towards the camp.They saw the remaining two ratmen at the edge of their encampment. They were agitated and talking with raised voices in order to be audible over the noise of the thunderstorm.“Listen”, one said: “ Ygran and Wookas should have returned by now. And I haven’t seen Lok and Onnat up there either!”.The other one was holding his crossbow nervously:” So, you think the Asaathi had been followed?”“Could be. Something is foul here. And even if they are just hiding away from the rain and the “visitor”, then we can’t allow that lack of discipline. I think it would be best if I would go and tell Storm of Blood.”.“Good. I will stay here and hold watch.”.Not willing to wait for whoever this “Storm of Blood” was, Trepat decided to take out the messenger. But the driving rain spoiled his aim and he missed both of the ratmen, who were now fully alerted.Both shouted:”ALARM!!!” and shot their crossbows at Trepat, but they too had problems shooting straight in the storm and missed him.A hundred yards back, Jan heard the cry of Alarm and figuring that the time of ambushes was over, he started to run as fast as his full plate armor allowed him to towards the encampment.The others now left their cover and charged the ratmen. A fierce battle ensued, and just as they had defeated the two ratmen, one of the huts opened and two of the Asaathi came out. Also, there were more ratmen coming from under the waterfall.As Jan charged into the frey, a tree next to him was struck by lighning, catching fire in spite of the rain and as he was battling Asaathi and ratmen, the echo of the exploding tree was still humming in his head.The battle was fierce, and just as it seemed that the adventurers were gaining the upper hand, Trepat noticed a figure swooping to and fro among the clouds and peals of thunder.As the figure swooped low, all fighting ceased, since both, divine folks and titanspawn were looking up to it. Squinting in the rain, they saw that it was a vaguely feminine form some nine feet tall. Her ugly and warty face was framed by whipping and writhing hair that seemed to have a life on her own.Her cackling was louder than the thunder and it made the blood freeze in the veins of the terror stricken heroes: “ Fool servants of the ursuper gods! Your end is at hand!”.</blockquote>

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